empty tags and the XMl 1.0 spec

[Richard L. Goerwitz]

Elliotte Rusty Harold wrote:
> 
> >From the XML spec, section 3.1:
> 
> "Empty-element tags may be used for any element which has no content,
> whether or not it is declared using the keyword EMPTY. For
> interoperability, the empty-element tag must be used, and can only be
> used, for elements which are declared EMPTY."
>
> ...Is there any way out of this conundrum?

Yes.  Note what the standard means by "for interoperability".  It's not
a mandatory constraint.  So you can use <tag/> in place of <tag></tag>
for elements that aren't declared EMPTY.  But a good validator will at
least issue a warning when it sees <tag/>.  Typically this warning can
(and should) be ignored.

-- 

Richard Goerwitz
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